


Blink

by lostin_space



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Nanny, First Meetings, Helpful Alex Manes, M/M, POV Michael Guerin, wouldn't say it's a meet-cute it's more of a meet ugly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:09:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29922204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostin_space/pseuds/lostin_space
Summary: Every single person on Earth makes mistakes.Or at least that’s what Michael told himself as he hunched over, the heels of his hands pressed against his eyes. He kept repeating to himself over and over that he couldn’t swear even if that would make him feel better because the parents of this fucking kid would fire him the minute they told on him.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 9
Kudos: 75





	Blink

Every single person on Earth makes mistakes.

Or at least that’s what Michael told himself as he hunched over, the heels of his hands pressed against his eyes. He kept repeating to himself over and over that he couldn’t swear even if that would make him feel better because the parents of this  _ fucking kid  _ would fire him the minute they told on him.

“Kennedy?” Michael said, squinting and rubbing his eyes and trying to stop the burn as quickly as he could, “Kennedy, stay by me.”

“I wanna play!”

“We have to go  _ home, _ ” Michael said calmly. However, by the sound of steps running away from him, he figured she wasn’t listening. He groaned again and rubbed his eyes even more.

Do it, Isobel had said. It’ll be fun and the money is good, she said. The kids are cute and it’s a live-in position and it’ll totally be worth it. And she wasn’t  _ wrong  _ on all points. The money  _ was  _ good and the kids  _ were  _ cute. But the older one was a fucking menace who apparently had a track record of running nannies off and the parents had a list longer than fucking pi and he was just an engineering student doing his best and now he had sand in his eyes.

“Fisher, you still alive?” Michael asked through his own pout. Fisher made a gurgle of acknowledgment from his place in his stroller and Michael snorted. “Okay, that’s good.”

“Hey, excuse me,” a voice said from behind him. Michael cursed himself and turned around, hands still in his eyes that were still  _ burning.  _ “Hey, uh, I saw what happened. It’s not my first rodeo with sand in the eye if you want some help?”

The voice was soft and smooth and probably belonging to the only other adult male in the park because Michael had only seen women thus far. Well, before he was blinded. Still, he let out a thankful breath and tried not to think about how he was being a bad influence by talking to strangers.

“Yes, please.”

“Okay, sit down on the bench,” the man said, helping guide him a few steps away to the bench.

“Wait, Fisher‒”

“I got the stroller,” he said, laughing softly. Michael reached out to get his hand on it to double-check because the last thing he needed was to have one of them kidnapped. “I’m Alex, by the way.”

“Michael,” he said, letting Alex tilt his head back over the back of the bench. 

“Hi, Michael. Nice to meet you. This might burn,” Alex warned before the water hit Michael’s eye. He jumped and squinted more, blinking frantically. Alex shushed him like he would a baby and then a soft cloth wiped over his eye. It helped the stinging a bit and then Alex poured more water in his other eye. “I see you’re the new Westchester nanny.”

“Are they infamous or something?” Michael nearly whined, letting Alex keep doctoring up his eyes. He gave him a second to blink and his vision was slowly starting to fix itself, the burning subsiding for the most part. The irritation was still there.

“Kind of. But, like, all the nannies in Castle Village sort of know each other,” Alex said. He said Castle Village like it was normal and not a gated community full of people so rich they could eat Michael for lunch and get away with it. “But, yeah, we know the Westchester kids more than the nanny because they never stay too long.”

“I can see why,” Michael grumbled. Alex guided his head to be upright and offered him a dry cloth, letting him rub at his eyes as much as he needed. 

“Kennedy just acts out. Parents never give her enough attention is my theory,” Alex said simply. Which, honestly, was putting it lightly. 

“Alex,” a tiny voice asked through childlike panting after it ran up to them. Michael was still busy rubbing his eyes.

“What’s up?” Alex asked.

“Can I have gummies?”

“What do you say?”

“ _ Pretty  _ please?”

“Yeah,” Alex chuckled, “Sure. Sit down and catch your breath first so you don’t choke.”

Michael rubbed his eyes and blinked a few billion times until his vision stopped being a total disaster. He sniffled as it cleared a bit and he saw the back of Alex’s head as he bent over to search through his baby bag for gummies. The kid he nannied was sitting on the other side of the bench with glasses basically strapped to his head and a buzzcut.

“Hi,” the kid said, waving. Michael wondered how long he’d been waving before he noticed.

“Hi,” Michael said back.

“I’m Liam.”

“Michael.”

He opened his mouth to probably start talking a lot more, but Alex subdued him by sitting the packet of gummies down on the top of the bag and then requested his hands. Michael watched as Alex poured a bit of water on his hands, dried them, and then covered them in hand sanitizer. Liam giggled as Alex rubbed his little hands between his own, covering them to the best of his ability before opening the packet and handing it to him.

The entire time, Michael got a good view of Alex’s face and, honestly, he felt like he needed to go hide in a bush. The guy was attractive as hell and even more so when he was smiling wide at the kid and he saw Michael basically be a little bitch with sand in his eyes. He could feel his entire face heat up.

“Thank you,” Liam said, happily plucking one of the gummies out and shoving it into his mouth. Alex’s attention turned towards Michael after a warm  _ ‘you’re very welcome’. _

“How’re your eyes?” Alex asked and that smile being turned on him made it that much worse. It took a lot to not groan and steal the baby blanket from the stroller to cover his face.

“Okay. Still a bit uncomfortable, but,” Michael said, shrugging. Alex nodded and stood up straight. Michael’s eyes followed him and tried not to have too much of a gay panic as he tucked his hair behind his ears and put his hands on his hips.

“I’ll do you a favor. You watch Liam and Emma,” Alex said, turning to spot her before pointing towards the swings, “The one in the overalls and really big bow. And I’ll go wrangle Kennedy for you.”

“You don’t have to,” Michael said, shaking his head. The last thing he wanted to do was seem more useless in front of this gorgeous fucking man.

“I don’t mind. Seriously,” Alex said, giving him a big smile and then turning to go find Kennedy.

Michael swallowed heavily and turned towards Fisher who was very distracted by watching all the bigger kids running around. Emma was swinging higher and higher and Michael very seriously hoped she had no intention to jump off. He didn’t think he could handle that responsibility. Liam, on the other hand, was nodding along to a song he was humming as he ate his gummies. Then there was Kennedy who was pouting while Alex crouched in front of her after pulling her off to the side, away from the other kids.

Michael watched as they seemed to have a conversation and Kennedy’s face was red with anger, tears already starting. Alex didn’t lose his cool or raise his voice or do anything that’d seem demanding and subsequently didn’t get sand to the face. Then Alex held out his hand which she stared at with that same pout before reluctantly shaking his hand. Alex laughed and then stood up, nodding over to Michael.

Kennedy kept her angry pout but stomped all the way back over to Michael while Alex followed.

“Fine,” she said sharply, “I’ll go home.”

Michael gave a relieved breath. 

“Thank you,” Michael said to Alex.

“Don’t thank me, thank her, she’s the one who made the decision,” Alex said simply. Michael blinked and huffed a laugh before giving Kennedy his full attention.

“Thank you. I’m not trying to be mean, we just have to go home and start dinner,” Michael tried to explain. She didn’t stop pouting or uncross her arms, but she nodded and stomped over to stand by the stroller.

“Are your eyes okay enough to drive?” Alex asked when Michael stood. He was even more gorgeous when they were on the same level (physically, not mentally because Alex was a fucking child whisperer) and he regretted not being able to see whenever Alex had to leave over him to clean his eyes.

“Yeah, and I’ll go slow. Seriously, though, thanks. I barely know what I’m doing,” Michael admitted. Alex smiled warmly.

“It’s a hard job. Kids are a lot, but you just have to talk to them like they’re people. ‘Cause they are. And the longer you stay and the more you just talk to her like she’s a person and get her to understand  _ why  _ things are happening, the more Kennedy will like you. Seriously, Emma was the worst when I first started nannying for them. I think she Googled how to get rid of me or something because she did the classic running-off-the-nanny thing where she put a garden snake in my bed,” Alex laughed. Michael’s eyes widened and he was suddenly a little grateful Kennedy hadn’t gotten that far. “Wish I would’ve taken a picture when she saw me just pick it up and put it back outside. Anyway, listen, if you ever need something, you should call me.”

Michael watched in some sort of haze as Alex bent over to pluck a sharpie out of the baby bag and held out his hand. Michael gave him his arm and watched as he wrote out his number on his skin. He finally understood why people on TV didn’t want to wash their hands after someone famous touched them.

“Maybe we can have a playdate,” Alex said, capping the marker and looking at him with a mischievous little smirk, “With or without the kids.”

Michael blinked slowly. “You’d be down for that after watching me get sand kicked into my eyes?”

“Hey, you handled that like a champ,” Alex laughed. He had arguably the best smile Michael had ever seen. Which totally tracked because he was clearly an angel. No way anyone else would be this flawless.

“Okay, yeah, then I’ll call you.”

“Can’t wait,” Alex said, biting his lip slightly before turning to Kennedy and Fisher, “Bye, guys. See you later.”

Fisher waved back excitedly and Kenndey made an annoyed noise, but it was basically the same thing.

The fact that Michael had to make the entire drive home before putting Alex’s number in his phone was a special kind of torture.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](https://spaceskam.tumblr.com/post/645102853028003840/17-for-malex)


End file.
